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ADDRESS 






DELIVERED AT CASTLE GARDEN, FEB. 23, 1854, | 






BEFORE THE 



ORDER OF UNITED AMERICANS,! 






ON THE OCCASION OF THEIR CELEBRATION OF THE 



ONE HUNDRED & TWENTYSECOND ANNIVERSARY I 



OF THE 



BIRTHDAY OF WASHINGTON, 



BY 



JACOB BROOM, Esq., - 



G. S. OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



PUBLISHED BY THE CHANCERY O. U. A. STATE OF NEW-YORK. 



NEW-YORK: 
BRO. WxM. B. WEISS, PRINTER, No. 18 SPRUCE STREET. 

1854. 



(?"|i 
Iv 



AN 



ADDRESS 

DELIVERED AT CASTLE GARDEN, FEB. 22, 1854, 

BEFORE THE * ^SJ 

ORDER OF UNITED AMERICANS, 

ON THE OCCASION OF THEIR CELEBRATION OF THE 

ONE HUNDRED & TWENTYSECOND ANNIVERSARY 



BIRTHDir OF WASBINCTON 



BY 



JACOB BROOM, Esq., 



G. S. OF PENNSYLVANIA. ^, , , ^^ 

PUBLISHED BY THE CHANCERY O. U. A. STATE OF NEW YORK. 




NEW YORK : 
BRO. WM. B. WEISS, PRINTER, No. 18 SPRUCE STREET. 
1854. 



ADDRESS 
DELIVERED AT CASTLE GARDEN, FEB. 22, 1854, 



BEFORE THE 



O . U. A., 

By JACOB BROOM, Esq., G. S., Pa. 



No tribute of the tongue, my countrymen, nor pageantry, however im- 
posing, can equal the occasion on which this vast concourse is assembled ; 
and dead, indeed, to evpry genuine irhpulse of rational freedom must be 
that heart which is not touched by its sacred inspiration. With one accord 
and one purpose, American patriots have paused in their affairs of business, 
and with a spirit mightier than ever characterized a " Genoese feast of union," 
have yielded to the irresistible impulse of devotional gratitude to God, and 
unwavering fidelity to the land of their birth. 

Other nations, in all ages, have had their days of festival and jubilee in 
con^memoration of events which have added glory or renown to their 
career, or heightened the general prosperity of their people. The birthdays 
of sovereigns, and days which have been marked by a mere amelioration of 
the servile condition of subjects, have been observed in a spirit far more 
than commensurate with the,occasions which called for them. But, in our 
own hallowed country, in whose every page of history is witnessed the Om- 
nipotent Finger guiding and directing the course of ancestral events, dis- 
pelling the gloom of servility and pouring upon man the day-spring of ra- 
tional freedom, we recognize a grandeur, which, superadded to an exuberance 
of heart, is calculated to hush the power of utterance and inspire our na- 
ture with reverential awe ; leading us to exclaim in the language of the 
Psalmist : * 

" We have heard tvith our ears, O God, our fathers Jiave told us, what 
work thou didst in their days, in the times of old. 

" For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither 

* XLIV. Psalm. 



did their own arm save tliem : but thy right Imnd, and thine arm, and 
tlie light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favor unto them. 

"Through thee will we push down our enemies ; through thy name 
will we tread them under tliat rise up against us." 

Among our national days stands pre-eminently the 22d day of February, 
1732, seeming to bear upon it the peculiar impress of Providential design. 
Difficulties with the mother country had not then arisen — the strong arm 
of power had not oppressed the Colonies — no stamp act, nor tax on tea, 
were to be foimd on the statute book of parliament, nor had a military sys- 
tem of bondage characterized the time. Yet they were all, and more, in- 
volved in the issues of future years, and would require one especially adapted 
to those operations necessary for the establishment of a nation wherein the 
glory of God should be made manifest, and the rights of man exist untram- 
meled by arbitrary or despotic power. The old world was no cradle for 
republican freedom. Its genius would have been strangled in its infancy, 
and its spirit crushed by the allied powers of monarchy. When, therefore, 
we contemplate the character of Washington, and the events in his histoiy, 
as well as the condition of the old world, we are constrained reverentially to 
acknowledge the gracious designs of Providence in the seasonable birth of 
Washington and the establishment of the hberties of our nation. 

It cannot be uninteresting, nor I trust unprofitable at this time, when 
assembled to commemorate the peculiar virtues and services of the im- 
mortal " Father of his Country," to look upon the antecedent condition of 
man through the night of political servitude, and trace those events M'hich 
finally broke the spell of absolutism and opened the dawn of that great free- 
dom which Washington was destined to perfect. 

His birth found man, as he had been for centuries, under monarchical 
subjection. The oppressor heard not that a mighty man had been ushered 
into hfe, whose arm, nerved with strength from on Irigh, was destined to 
redeem the majesty of human freedom from the dominion of temporal 
power. He felt no shock to his throne, nor did he behold the handwriting 
on the wall of his banqueting hall. Yet with the continuance of monarchy 
grew the "male child" in strength and wisdom. The events of the eight- 
eenth century were destined to ripen at the time when he should be in the 
full vigor of manhood ; and Ids history became the history of a change in 
government, by which the world should be taught that monarchy was in- 
compatible "with the condition to which man had been created. 

God had placed no monarch over Adam in the primeval day, neither had 
He commanded that Adam should be king. But to man he gave the earth 
and " the fulness thereof," creating and establishing no supremacy in one 



over another. All men were created equal. Temporal government be- 
longed to them alike. 

In. the progress of time convenience, undoubtedly, required that govern- 
ment should be instituted among men, the earliest being, perhaps, the Pa- 
triarchal. This was for the purposes of society. Man was created a social 
being, and it became necessary, as the population of the earth increased, 
that there should be established certain rules or laws which should regu- 
late his intercourse and transactions with his fellow-man ; — that the weak 
should be protected against the powerful ; — that right should be cherished 
and wrong eschewed, and that harmony, peace and happiness should pre- 
vail among them. Separate communities were established necessarily for 
the common weal, in each of which grew up peculiar customs and particu- 
lar laws, the execution of which devolved on certain heads created by com- 
mon consent. 

The ambition of man has been ever powerful, as exemplified in all his- 
tory of government. A Caesar or a Cataline, a Cromwell or a Burr has 
been found in almost every nation which has flourished on earth. The 
mere taste of authority has served in many instances but to whet the appe- 
tite of ambition and lead to acts of aggression upon natural rights, and thus 
step by step, through individual ambition, first crept over the condition of 
manldnd those odious features of absolutism which finally enslaved the 
governed and made them subject to the caprice of the governor. The 
serpent of old made not a more insidious progress in corrupting our first 
parents and bringing them from their high estaic. 

The condition of man became debased. The force of his genius becama 
cramped by the servile labor required for the heavy operations of a courtly 
power. The mind had neither time nor opportunity for cultivation, and 
the more degenerate it became, the more easily did monarchy rivet itself 
ou tlie eastern contuient, until it had extended its power over its entire sur- 
face. 

The hand of God is nowhere visible on the page of history in the estab- 
lishment of temporal monarchy, unless in the time of iSaul, when in displeas- 
ure He granted to the Israelites the experiment at their own request. The 
term king, as used in the books of Moses, signified merely the chief or head 
of a tribe or city, lor not less than three score and ten of them were defeat- 
ed by Adonizedec, and a score and a half by Joshua ; to say nothing of the 
five kings of the Amorites, ou whose necks Joshua commanded his people 
to put their y'ee^, and afterwards slew and hanged on as many trees in the 
vale of Makkedah. Even Noah, tlie only favorite of God of the antedilu- 
vian race, acquired no regal autliority over the postdiJuvians. 

The necessity for government arose from tiie increase of mankind. Its 



6' 

history is imperfect and unsatisfactory; yet, enough is known to justify the 
belief that its officers were first elective, and afterwards, through the spe- 
cious pretext of mischief arising from elections, became hereditary. Royalty 
grew ambitious of eidarged dominions, and ideas of conquest led to inter- 
minable wars for that purpose. The history of government through a long 
period of time was the history of blood, civil war, oppression and anarchy, 
which continued to disgrace mankind even after the genius of republican- 
ism had broken the imperial scepter. 

Nations acquired dominion and glory but to lose them in conflict with a 
stronger power. The Argonautic expedition of Greece, for instance, which 
was designed as well for commerce as for glory ; her sieges of Thebes and 
Troy— »the war of the Heraclidse — her conquest of Persia — set her in a blaze 
of glory, which was afterwards eclipsed by the greater gloiy of Rome when 
Greece, by conquest, became a province of the Roman Empire. 

The prowess of Rome aimed after universal dominion. Her power and 
glory arose to a degree of splendor unequalled by any other nation. The 
people felt their glory, but they were not satisfied. The system of govern- 
ment was obnoxious to them, and a change in its form was, in the course 
of time, effected by their, intelligence and republican disposition. The con- 
sular dignity was easily substituted for that of the regal, and gradually, by 
changes in the constitution, she progressed to the democratic form. 

Republicanism began to attract the attention of mankind. Sparta, Athens, 
Thebes and the Grecian States of Sicily threw off the restraints of monarch- 
ical power and became republics. Some flourished long, and under wise 
administration of laws. Others were short-lived, owing to wars, corruption 
and intestine commotion. Surrounded by the power and influences of mo- 
narchical government, ever jealous of the germ and spread of republican 
freedom, it is not to be wondered at that they so soon fell under the poisons 
infused into them. Rational liberty had not room for its growth' that it 
might acquire strength for its own protection. The political atmosphere of 
the eastern continent was fatal to its vigor and beauty. It flourished but 
for a while, and through individual ambition, whereby the virtue of the 
people was destroyed and they taught to beheve that the imperial form of 
government was best adapted to the masses, it Mdthered and fell : and thus 
ended the prospect of the estabhshment of the liberty of maidiind on the 
oriental continent : 

"What could Cato do 
Against a world, a base, degenerate world, 
"Which courts the yoke, and bows the neck to Caesar?" 

Turn now to our ancient progenitors, the Anglo Saxons. 



The history of England presents, through a long succession of reigns, the 
struggles of the people for freedom, at least from those maxims of absolutism 
vuider which they had long suffered. From the time of Egbert, when the 
kingdoms of the Saxon Heptarchy were united, and the caa-eer of England 
began, to the reign of John, the people were imder subjection to a despotic 
power. By the Magna Charta of that reign their liberties were far from 
being allowed to them. That instrument secured to them only certain 
rights, but did not relieve them frem the oppression of the power of the 
crown, as the subsequent history of that nation exemplifies. 

The opening of the seventeenth century found the spirit of hberty still 
sleeping under the influences of monarchical power. All ideas of human 
rights were hushed in the stillness of implicit obedience to royal mandates, 
and every aspiration subdued in its incipiency by the utterly hopeless prospect 
of being able to burst through the unpenetrable power which restrained it. 
Nevertheless, the dawn of rational liberty was at hand ; and although the 
darkest hour, which is said to precede the davv^i, had not yet involved the 
people in its gloom, yet the change, or rather its immediate cause, was about 
to commence m the extinction of the Tudor family, by the demise of EUza- 
beth, and the accession of the Scottish branch of the royal family, in the 
person of James, the first of the Stuarts. 

At that period there existed what was termed an English Constitution, 
which, in its provisions, was somewhat more hberal than a more ancient 
one, both to the king and the subject. By it the power of the barons over 
the king was taken away, ^nd the privileges of the people were in some 
measure enlarged, which, although unworthy of the sacred name of libertj.'', 
was yet a relaxation of that absolutism which had characterized the gov- 
ernment under a still more ancient constitution, whereby neither the barons 
nor the people had any defined or regular liberties or privileges whatever. 
And although the reign of Elizabeth has been extolled as the " good old days 
of Queen Bess," and unbounded panegyrics have been showered on her 
wisdom and virtues, yet the only merit she actually possessed was in the 
non-infringement of any established right of the people. It was not that 
the liberty of the subject was full or even satisfactory; for that could not 
be under the oppressive instruments of power then existing, such as the Star- 
Chamber and the Court of High Commissions, possessing discretionary pow- 
ers, and the judges holdmg their offices during the pleasure of the cro-wTi, 
which, of course, gave to them no alternative but to pander to the will of 
the monarch, or lose their positions and probably their heads. Superadded 
to this was also the arbitrary exercise of martial laiv, and even the rack, 
which, although not in general use, was not unfrequently employed upon the 
mere warrant of the secretary of state or the privy council. 



8 

In this eiflightencd age, to a people intelligent and free, such a view of 
the condition of mankind is well calculated to excite amazement, and al- 
most to create a doubt whether such a state of things could have existed in 
reality. But the page of history is the record of time. Its chronicled events 
have no affinity with fiction's fancied facts. They stand forth in the 
Bubliniity of truth, giving rather the outhne than the picture. 

Deplorable though it may seem, man has been, and in some parts of the 
world is yet, the subject of arbitrary power ; bending before the rod of des- 
potism — a slave to the iron will of a temporal master — cowering under the 
exercise of a monarch's volition. 

Such, indeed, was nearly the condition of the Anglo Saxon race at the 
openiirg of the seventeenth century in the Christian era. Their rights as 
men were narrowly circumscribed by the absurd claim of the monarch to 
absolute power. 

The predecessors of Elizabeth had asserted and maintained their almost 
unlimited prerogatives, and had exercised powers incompatible with even 
the liberties accorded by the constitution. But Elizabeth, although she en- 
joyed her prerogatives without restraint, and abated" not at any time the 
exercise of her authority, was exact in the observance of all the rights the 
people could claim under the constitution. She allowed them no more; and 
while thus particular respecting their very limited privileges, she exacted of 
them implicit obedience to her regal power. In this she was as firm as any 
of her royal predecessors; and for the purpose of enforcing it, and for. the 
speedy punishment of ofi'enders, would frequently resort to the exercise of 
martial law in all its most arbitrary plenitude. 

The prerogatives of the sovereign were nearly, if not quite, absolute, and 
totally at variance witli any idea of the liberty of the subject. Parliament 
itself M^as exposed to them, and Elizabeth exercised them so far as to ex- 
pressly prohibit parliamentary interference with either state matters or ec- 
clesiastical causes ; and numerous instances occured during her reign of the 
honorable members of that body having been openly sent to prison by her 
for presuming to exercise their own judgment in matters of legislation. The 
dispensing power gave to her absolute authority over them ; ibr thereby even 
acts of parhament were invalidated, and rendered of no eliect. Her pro- 
clamations were law, and the Slar-Chamber, odious in its every feature to 
the principles of libcHy, was the instrument for their most rigorous enforce- 
ment. 

Under this absolute authority the people appeared, by their submission, to 
be content so long as the sovereign exceeded not the tyranny of the prede- 
cessor ; but on the accession of James, the Anglo Saxon blood, so long quies- 
cent, was, under his enormities, aroused to a sense of its servility ; and the 



spirit of liberty, as if regenerated by oppression, awoke from its#lumber U 
newness of life and freshness of vigor. Even the commons participated 
ia the general spirit of resistance, and seemed determined to guard their in- 
alienable rights and the privileges of their fellow subjects against the ty- 
rannous encroachments of the crown. The true spirit in the hearts of the 
people was touched, and, like the giant awaking fiom his deep slumber, it 
begar\ slowly to manifest the moving principle by which it ultimately broke 
through the restraints of monarchy, and alighting upon this continent, planted 
itself upon the immovable rock of virtue and intelligence, and reflected 
back its light upon the gloomy condition of the old world. 

The reign of James continued for more than twenty years, during which 
time, although much benefit resvilted to mankind by the opening of a new 
era in the Christian world, which, in the end, accelerated the advancement 
of freedom, yet the bondage of his people became more and more oppressive 
by reason of his claim to unlimited prerogatives. Discontent was fast 
gathering its strength wherewith to resist openly the evils which seemed to 
be thickening beyond endurance, when he was " gathered to his fathers, " 
and was succeeded by his son Charles. 

Under the new reign the people looked in vain for a peaceful redress of 
their grievances, for Charles had no sooner ascended the throne than he 
gave unmistakable intimations of his intention to pursue the way which 
his father had paved. Under the intrigues of Buckingham, his prime 
favorite, perhaps because of his corruption, he became involved in difiicul- 
ties, as well with the peers of the realm as with the House of Commons, 
by which the spirit of freedom was more fairly aroused and begajv to act in 
resistance to oppression. The morning star had arisen, and now penetrated 
the Bullen gloom which shrouded the majesty of man, and it could be eclip- 
sed only by the dawn of that light which radiates in the intellect of man 
and teaches him his capacity to participate in the action of human govern- 
ment. 

But no visible efi'ect upon the tyrarmous disposition of Charles was dis- 
cernible. On the contrary, his struggle became more and more vexatious, 
until the people, no longer willing to submit to a heartless master, bent their 
deterniiuation to the overthrow of monarchy and the establishment of repub- 
licanism. 

Such was the character of the reign of Charles I., by which noble spirits 
were aroused to resistance and to the consideration of the principle ul' ra 
tioual freedom. The monarch, infatuated vi'ith the idea ol' prerogatives, 
and urged on by tne wicked and ambitious counsellois who surrounded him, 
abated not his encroachments upon right, justice and law. His continued 
warfare with the House of Commons ; his arbitrary and oppressive action 



10 

towards th» people ; the manly resistance of parliament, and the awakened 
spirit of the Anglo-Saxon, but foreshadowed the mighty advent of civil and 
rehgious liberty. Submission no longer characterized the condition of the 
realm. The parliament, true to their ovni prerogatives, and moved by the 
interests of the people at large, boldly resisted the usurpations of the cro'^iTi, 
and civil discord with all its sanguinary horrors began to peep from the cur- 
tain of futurity. 

But oppression in civil government was not the only evil which beset the 
people. A church government, also, exercised high handed measures under 
the direction of Laud, Archbishop of London, an obsequious promoter of the 
pretensions of Charles, and the sacred right of conscience was invaded by 
his intolerant and despotic action. The Puritans became the object of his 
most unrelenting persecutions, and were compelled to fly for escape. The 
old world presented no prospect of freedom in civil or religious afl'aifs, and 
fitting up their frail bark, many of them croAvded under its sails, and 
committing themselves to the stormy and tempestuous bosom of the mighty 
deep, under the guidance of that same Power which had once before hushed 
its loud roaring, and commanded, " Peace, be still," they found at length 
that security among the savages and wild beasts of the forests of America, 
— the heaven-designed home of freedom — which had been denied them 
in the land of their birth. 

Those who'remained where not idle in resisting kingly power on the one 
hand, and priestcraft on the other. Human rights and freedom of conscience 
attracted the attention of all classes, and champions arose openly to assert 
and resolutely to maintain the rightful independence of the people. The 
people, themselves, animated and encouraged by the increasing manifesta- 
tions of the spirit of freedom, persisted in their noble stand until the proud 
monarch, resolutely refusing to abate his claim, was brought into open 
collision, and the realm plunged in the gory depths of civil war. 

The cause of human rights, after a sanguinary strife, was triumphant. 
The barbarous king was forced to abdicate his throne, and, seeking protec- 
tion from the Scots, was betrayed and surrendered into the hands of the 
English government, by which he was convicted of maladministration and 
beheaded in the sight of his own palace. 

Thus ended the career of a monarch who sought to extinguish the spark 
of freedom — to fetter the majesty of man — and bind him in slavish submission 
to the throne of power. His extravagances were useful, however, to the 
human race. They led to the consideration of the means whereby the con- 
dition of man might be amehorated. Human rights began to be discussed; 
the principles of government were examined, and the gloom of submission 
began consequently to wear away before the dawning light, which increased 



; 11 

in proportion to the progress of their enquiries, until the beautiml morning 
of freedom, here in our own land, opened fully upon man, redeemed by the 
irrepressible majesty of his nature, and elevated to his rightful position, of 
rational independence and uninterrupted communion with his God. 

Thus by a glance at the history of England, and particularly the reigns 
of Elizabeth, James I. and his son Charles, we discover those causes which 
awakened the attention of man to the afiairs of government — the fountain 
whence sprung those noble principles which operated in turn upon our 
fathers' in the day of their oppression, and caused them to spurn the old 
spirit of monarchy, which stiU seemed to be lurking around the throne on 
which it had reigned of yore. 

Although the ultimate settlement of the affairs of England into a mixed 
government secured to the people of that realm a degiee of happiness and 
liberty theretofore unknown, it was reserved to the land of America, whose 
shores are washed by the two great oceans of the world, to put into prac- 
tical operation the full ■ theory of rational liberty. Here, only, they could 
flourish beyond the reach of despotic influences, and, if faithfully adhered to,, 
bid defiance to time or event. 

The colonial history of our own country is too well understood to require- 
n extended notice on this occasion. It has been the theme of amiiversary 
addresses for more than half of a centuiy, and nearly all that is interesting: 
may be found floating in the tide of the literary productions of the age. In- 
deed, it may be objected that historical details have been already too ela- 
borate for this occasion. But as they involved so much of interest, connected 
as they are with that race from whom Washington and our forefathers, 
mostly descended, I have ventured to introduce them, principally with the 
view to direct the mind of the American patriot to a most deplorable state 
of misgovernment in striking contrast with the happy system devised by 
our fathers : believing, that when he learns to feel for the condition of those 
who have vuidergone the indescribable oppression of power, and contem- 
plates the great difficulties which beset them in their noble efforts to throw 
off umiatural restraints of government, to burst the bonds of despotic sway 
and assert the natural rights of man, he will become the more sensible of 
his imperative duty to devote his earnest exertions to uphold the grand sys- 
tem which is reared in the land of his birth, and to exercise unwearied vi- 
gilance against every species of danger and every possible chance ol evil. 

The eighteenth century opened a new era in the history of human govern- 
ment, and brought upon the stage of action a band of men with heads to . 
comprehend and hearts to execute. A new world had been peopled — a land 
of wealth had presented its resources to the old world. Crowned heads and 
peasants had been attracted by its allurements. Hardy pioneers had paved . 



12 

the way for the adventurer, and arts and civilization had followed in the 
train. The nide wigwam of the aborigines had given place to architectural 
skill, and the virgin soil of their hunting gromids had been broken by the 
ploughshare of agriculture. The genius of art and science had spread its 
expansive wings over the new domain of the forest land. Towns and com- 
munities freely dotted the surface of the countr)', and the population had 
began to wax strong. 

The kingdom of Great Britain had kept upon Columbia an avaricious ^ 
eye. It had looked to it for the means of exoneration from heavy national 
liabihties, and exercised over the settlers a vigilance falling not short of 
tyranny. Governors of arbitrary disposition were commissioned by the 
crowii, whose individual ambition for wealth, and love of power, superadded 
to the grasping policy of government, weighed sorely upon natural rights, 
and reduced the coloiusts far below the condition of those who had remain- 
ed at home. The presumption of such governors, even in the early settle- 
ment of the colonies, met with rebuke, and they were sent by the people 
back to the king, who saw fit to pardon their lyramiy and restore them to 
.their positions. 

The determination of the kingdom was manifestly to secure to itself all 
the advantages of commerce and manufacture, and for that p\irpose to hold 
in servile bondage those by whose capital and labor the rich resources of 
the coimtry were to be developed. This mistaken poUcy had been contin- 
ued from the first. Parhament undertook to legislate for the colonies —to 
impose taxes and devise systems of revenue. Remonstrance was received 
with contempt, and public meetings declared to be " treason." Govern- 
ors dissolved provincial assemblies for danng to protest against the " om- 
nipotence of parhament," and asserted the prerogatives of the cro-WTi — me- 
nacingly assuring the people " that the king was determined to maintain 
his sovereignty over the provinces, and whoever should persist in usui-ping 
any of the rights of them would repent his rashness." 

The government and the people were]_ brought into perpetual collision, 
the former endeavoring to repress the spirit of fieedom, and the latter as- 
serting their rights, and even turning out unarmed against the bayonet and 
balls of the military quartered upon them. They regarded the whole 
course of the British government as a designed system of bondage, opposed 
to true principles, and resolved to submit to it no longer. 

The declaration of July 4, '76, accordingly proclaimed to mankind that 
another nation had sprung into existence : — that the bonds of tyranny 
could no longer bind Americans in slavish submission to the throne of 
power — and that these United States should be free and independent. The 
world stood amazed at the boldness of the position, and looked with doubt 



13 

upon the ability of our fathers to contend with the power of so formidable a 
nation. But the blood of their brethren had been spilled on the plains of 
Lexington and Bunker Hill, and nobly they determined that all of the best 
blood of the country should be poured out like water before it should be de- 
based by servility. " The generals of despotism," said they, " are now 
drawing the lines of circumvallation around our bulwarks of hberty, and 
nothing but imity, resolution and perseverance can save ourselves and pos- 
terity from what is worse than death — Slavery." 

The imanimous choice of Congress fell on a quiet, unpretending citizen, 
who had many years before retired from the public notice of his country- 
men. Without ostentation he presented himself at the head of the Ameri- 
can forces, asking counsel of the God of Nations, and calling on the Con- 
gress to abstain from any interference with him in the discharge of the du- 
ties he had assumed. 

The conflict was long, and to human view doubtful. Events were dis- 
couraging. Want of means and great offering were endured for years al- 
most without a hope of ultimate triumph. But the character of the men 
was the safety of their cause. They fought to defend the rights of man. 
Tkey contended for freedom and the right of conscience. The spark of liberty 
had electrified the nation, and the citizen, the statesman, and the soldier ahke 
felt the shock, and yielded implicit obedience to its impulse. They gathered 
on the field of deadly combat, determined to support the noble resolution to live 
free or die. Their bosoms burned with impatience to repel the proud inva- 
ders of their country, and their arms were nerved as freemen's arms are 
wont to be who strike for liberty. Their lives, their fortunes and their sa- 
cred honor were pledged on the altar of their country's freedom. They 
might have been cut to pieces, but such men could never have been con- 
quered. 

Unsullied by vice, nobly disinterested, and with no ambition but their 
coruitry's welfare, they defended their country's cause. They made not 
war upon virtue and unoffending innocence, but exercised their valor 
against the enemies of freedom, rearing the standard of independence, 
and catching the pure hues of heaven, they stamped them upon the ban- 
ner of the free. The blast of the trumpet awakened the echoes of forest 
and dale, and the clang of arms denoted that the grand contest for human 
rights marked the age. Death and carnage stalked abroad amid the con- 
tending ranks, and many a youthful hero, full of promise and hope, fell in 
the struggle, whose blood hallowed the soil of freedom's home, and whose 
ashes intermingled with the land which is now our birthright. The 
strong battlements of power were finally made to yield before the match- 



14 

less intrepidity of American valor, and the proud hopes of America were 
filled to the brim. 

Such men ! who can weary in the contemplation of their character, or 
ever cease to admire their noble assertion of the rights of man, and their 
valorous struggle to maintain them for posterity ? 

But there was one in that band on whom all eyes rested — one who gave 
life to hope and nerve to his country, whose placid disposition, unwavering 
fidelity and firmness of action inspired confidence in the hearts of his coun- 
trymen —one who, in the silent watches of the night as in the day-solitude 
ef the forest recesses, communed with the God of Nations, and invoked the 
blessing of Heaven upon the cause, and of whom it has been beautifully 
said, " Nature had cast him in her finest mould ; Virtue gave him her ma- 
ternal benediction ; Wisdom blushed not to call him her own ; Patriotism 
with rapture pressed him to her bosom, and Valor by her side smiling at 
her caresses, resolved to complete the man." 

How shall we utter his name aftiid the deep emotions of the grateful 
heart — how manifest due reverence to the memory of the hero and states- 
man whose name is made by fame immortal ? Let the hearts of our coun- 
trymen ever unite in one impulse, and as the heart of one man, in re-vfer- 
ence to God for his high favor to the land of our birth, breathe our solemn, 
united vows of fidelity to the memory of " GEORGE WASHINGTON, 
THE FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY." 

In memory of our illustrious hero and sage we are now, on the anniver- 
sary of his birth, convened. With universal assent this day should be an- 
nually obsei'ved as a day of national reflection. The mad career of partizan 
strife, as well as the busy hum of industrial life, should alike be hushed 
before the breathing of that same spirit which kindled republican liberty, 
as though the whole multitude of the spirits of our fathqrs, with Washing- 
ton in their midst, were hovering over the scene of their former glory whis- 
pering to us of their severe trials and fervent hopes, of their glorious reward 
and anxious solicitude. We should on this day derive fresh impulse in our 
patriotism, and imbibe largely of their spirit. In the contemplation of their 
character, and the character of their times, we shovJd learn lessons of im- 
perative duty. They have all been gathered to the mansions of rest. They 
have passed away, but " the bright track of their Jiery car'' is ever visible 
to the eye of the patriot, and while the mantle which falls from them rests 
upon US, a new generation, we cannot be insensible of the weight of respon- 
sibility to which we were born. The preservation of the institutions which 
they founded is the great, patriotic work of the true-hearted American for 
all time to come. 

But there is, unfortunately, in our country a spirit which |ipr years has 



15 

interfered too\ argely with patriotic considerations. It is the same spirit 
against which "Washington earnestly cautioned his countrymen when bid- 
ding them his eternal farewell, "Let me warn you in tlie most solemn 
manner" said he, " against the effects of the spirit of party, generally," 
" It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, 
controlled or repressed ; but in those of the popular form it is seen in its 
greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy." " It opens the door 
to foreign influence and corruption, which find a facilitated access to the 
govenunent itself, through the channels of party passions." 

Alas ! how prophetic were his words 1 1 The mad conflict of party 
of late years has grown wilder and more desperate. It has swept 
like the hurricane over the peaceful domain of our repubhc, causing every 
thing to bend before the fierceness of its motion. The most unpatriotic 
means have been resorted to for the attainment of its objects. Personal vi- 
tuperation, destruction of individual character, prostration of the meritorious, 
abuse of the freedom of the press and of speech, personal conflict, resulting in 
loss of limb and life, are concomitant partizan evils. But the greatest of all, 
and from which the most fearful consequences are threatened, is the gi-oss 
abuse of that humane provision of our fathers made for the relief of the op- 
pressed of other climes, the system of naturalization of aliens. Under that 
provision nearly a million are annually added to our population, who are too 
eagerly caught up by the baneful spirit of party, and without education or 
knowledge of government, soon involved in political aflairs, and have an im- 
portant bearing upon questions which require the exercise of the best judg- 
ment and soundest patriotism of Americans. They have increased to such an 
extent as to cause the most unworthy sycophancy on the part of political 
leaders (including even some of our most prominent men) to secure their 
numerical power for party aggrandizement or the promotion of individual 
ambition. 

Thus have partizans widely departed from the path of patriotism and 
the counsels of Washington, and, instead of appealing to the patriotic inte- 
grity of their countrymen for the exercise of reason upon measures of policy, 
their attention seems almost exclusively to be directed to the best means of 
obtaining the foreign vote, and exciting foreigners to a wild enthusiasm ut- 
terly incompatible with the nature of free government. 

In this there is involved a hidden danger vast and direful, which evokes 
from the past a powerful admonition in the awakened groans of myriads 
who have suffered and fallen under most excruciating persecutions proceeding 
from a temporal power which seeks to grasp the reins of civil government 
over all the earth. The elements of its strength are fast accumulating 
upon our soil ; its resources are active and its emissaries energetic ; it is a 



16 

power which has crushed and destroyed repubhcanism wherever it has been 
able to concentrate its means : and yet, in this enlightened age, thiough the 
wilduess of party sjyirit, we behold it made the sport of politicians, if not 
the extinguisher of their patriotism. It vests itself in the garb of religion 
and approaches its object, step by step, in the most insinuating manner, lull- 
ing apprehension with winning smiles, praising what it detests and offering 
persuasions of safety while seeking usurpation. It is the power of Jesuitism 
seeking to advance the interests of the Roman Hierarchy, whose doctrines 
are far from being in accordance with republican institutions, and under 
the supremacy of which history teaches us that republican liberty camiot 
exist. 

The doctrine of a union of Church and State Avas emphatically disavowed 
by our fathers as destructive of the happiness and hberties of a nation. 
Their doctrines Americans should revere and adopt as their own. They 
were wise and patriotic men, and unless we claim to be more so we should 
adhere to their principles as our rule of action — as the chart, indeed, by 
which to advance among mankind the noble doctrines of the civil and reli- 
gious rights of man. 

It was well known to them that no civil govenunent could, or, of right, 
ought to control individual conscience in man's accoimtability to his Maker ; 
and on the other hand they believed that man, as an intelligent and reason- 
able being, with capacity for free government, could better direct the afi'airs 
of state than that the same should be at the dictation of an ecclesiastical 
power, which could not be otherwise than sectarian. Hence, the sages of 
that revolution, which redeemed miborn generations, as well from the pros- 
pect of servility to a temporal throne, as from the domination of the power 
of church, whether under favor of the crown or claiming to be superior in 
power, established the two-fold liberty of this country in utter repudiation 
of the monstrous doctrine of a union of Church and State. 

This character of government — freedom in civil and religious matters — as 
may be well supposed, met with no approbation either on the part of crowned 
heads or mitred prelates ; the former regarding the system of free govern- 
ment as experimental, with an irresistible tendency to downfall, while the 
latter looked with jealous apprehension to its effect, if successful, upon the 
future destiny of the world-renowned hierarchy. This was to our patriot 
gires a source of inquietude. They understood the feeble position of their 
infant republic, and the snctres and dangers to which it would be continually 
exposed, and guarded with an eagle's eye what they had won with valiant 
hearts ; and, in departing, enjoined on us, their descendants and successors, 
that wise maxim for the observance of posterity, 

'*THE PRICE OF LIBERTY IS ETERNAL VIGILANCE." 



17 

Brethren ! the events of the last ten or twelve years within the limits of 
our confederacy have been of most startling character. They have been 
deemed sufficient to arouse the apprehension, as well as the vigilance, of 
the patriotic, and have conduced to the formation of various systems of 
American brotherhood in many of the States of the Union. The character 
of those events, although transpiring in the cities of difierent States, is 
identical, and while wc witness in each a like effect in the organization of 
a counter influence, it is in vain that its cause can be denied. 

The principles on which those organizations are based are broad and 
comprehensive. They have arisen from no narrow views either of the na- 
ture of man, nor of past or passing events, but have their origin in the na- 
tural aflection of man for the land of his birth. In their tendencies they 
are patriotic, and in close character with those of our fathers when, in ear- 
her days, ''The sons of Liberty '' under the motto "Join or die,'' were or- 
ganized to resist foreign influence on American affairs. 

The necessity for them grows out of the peculiar and exposed nature of 
our government. The people form the great source of political action,, 
which is controlled and guided by the principle of a majority. The majority 
vote may change the whole nature and character of our government. It 
may entirely abolish the present system, and establish the most odious des- 
potism that ever existed. Our institutions are, therefore, based on the idea 
of universal intelligence, and are designed to operate through the exercise 
of sound reason. It is not enough that those only who are selected to ad- 
minister the affairs of government should be educated, but that general in- 
telligence should pervade the mass of the people. Hence provision for a 
public system of education was urged by the immortal Washington and his 
compeers as imperiously requisite. Such provision has been accordingly 
made, and should be preserved by Americans under one law, in the spirit 
of the command of God to Moses, * " Ye shall have one ordinance, both for 
the stranger, and for him that was horn in the latid" No idea or 
demand of any sect, in religion or politics, must be entertained or allowed 
to interfere with that provision. It is the main stay of our liberties, and 
our keenest vigilance must guard it and our purest patriotism sustain it. 
He is an enemy to the liberty of mankind who looks upon it with indiffer- 
ent eye, and a wilful traitor to the memory of Washington who would dare 
upon our soil to stigmatize it as " godless and immoral," or as " a sink of in- 
iquity." 

Brethren, we have organized to sustain a unity of law, education and 
government against the encroachments of foreign prejudices " through the 

♦ Numbers IX. 14. 



18 

channels of party passions." We do not seek to interfere with any religious 
sect, nor to witlidraw the right hand of fellowship from those who seek 
our shores, and with sincerity cherish their new home and our free institu- 
tions, but energetically to guard against the dangerous operations of foreign 
influences of whatever kind upon the social or poUtical affairs of our land. 
Individual aspiration, and the blind zeal of itarty, have alike rendered our 
organization necessarj'. Partizans, for party purposes, have yielded to foreign 
emissaries a portion of the patronage of goveriunent, and have also mani- 
fested a disposition to aid them in their eflbrt to procure a system of legis- 
lation which shall accelerate their progress, and finally break down the 
pillars of our freedom. They have been emboldened to demand the remo- 
val of the Bible of our fathers from our institutions, and to seek at the 
hands ot" government special legislation, whereby to Aveaken and impair the 
provision which has been made for public education. Already in their 
zeal have they spilled the blood of our brother-freemen in the streets of 
Philadelphia, and insulted and trampled upon the pride of our fathers — the 
Btar-spaugled bamier — the flag of the free. 

American men — representatives of those valorous heroes who achieved the 
liberties of this countiy — wherein consists the peace' and safety of our coun- 
try when such scenes as those enacted in Kensington and Southwark, and in 
other places, where the arm of ruthless violence was outstretched against 
the liberty and life of the American, is permitted by 'party men and <party 
government to transpire unnoticed ? Wherein shall be found our boasted 
freedom after party shall have yielded by degrees the noble institutions of 
our fathers to the systematic efibrts of foreign design. Freemen awake I 
Let the wild spirit of party be signally rebuked by the matchless genius of 
American patriotism. Let us remember the heart-inspiring incidents of 
the American revolution, and let every foreign power which shall seek to 
prejudice or subvert our liberties, find a Brutus in eveiy freeman. Let us 
rally in our strength and pride as American men with American hearts, 
resolved to guard and uphold the American system of education, and to 
preserve the elective franchise free from foreign influence or control. Our owm 
great and immortal Washington conjured us to believe him when he said : 
" Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence the jealousy of a free peo- 
ple ought to be constantly awake." He was not satisfied with merely 
warning his countrymen, but his noble spirit, groaning with apprehension, 
entreated, conjured them to believe it — " to keep closed all avenues against 
its approach to our government, and to resist with care t)ie spirit of inno- 
vation upon its principles, however specious the pretexts." 

Thank heaven! the American spirit is awake in our land, and the irre- 
sistible impulse of patriotism is warning the breasts of our countrymen. 



19 

The generous glow of liberty, the grateful recollection of the heroes and 
sages of the revolution, and the high appreciation of their invaluable leg- 
acy, all conspire to arouse true freemen to a sense of dut}' and action. Party 
spirit, through the operation of American association, will yet be restrained, 
and American freedom, the glorious moniunent oi the valor and wisdom oi 
our tbrefathers, shall be preserved to stand through untold ages the admira- 
tion ol mankind ; then, 

" Firm, united, let us be 
Rallying 'round our liberty ; 
And as a band of brothers jorn'd, 
Peace and safety we shall find." 



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